ZBrush Character Creation - Advanced Digital Sculpting 2nd Edition

18 chapter 1 ■ Sculpting, from Traditional to Digital

Sculpting a Lion’s Head

You will begin by sculpting the lion head. For the lion bas-relief we’ll use a ZBrush primi-

tive, the Plane3D tool.

I want to remind you that I am constantly moving the ZTool as I work, sculpting from

all angles. You can see this in the video captures of the tutorial sessions provided on the

DVD with this book.

1. Under Tool, click the active tool icon and select Plane3D. Click and drag on the canvas
   with the left mouse button to draw the tool.


2. Before you can edit this, you need to enter Edit mode. Press T on your keyboard or
   click the Edit button at the top of the screen (Figure 1.18).

Figure 1.18 Edit mode can be accessed via this button at

the top of your screen or by pressing the T key.

3. To change materials, open the Material menu. ZBrush has several default materials
   available to you. Typically I use the MatCap White Cavity shader over the default red
   wax. The translucency in red wax makes spotting surface form a little tricky. Click the
   Current Material box at the left of the screen or under the Material menu to open the
   Material Palette window. From this palette select the icon swatch for the material you
   prefer. For this tutorial I used the White Cavity shader. It is under MatCap Materials in
   the Material Browser.

If you neglect to enter Edit mode after drawing a model on the canvas, ZBrush will con-

tinue to add copies to the document window, dropping each one on the canvas as you go.

4. The plane is now in Edit mode, but this is a ZBrush primitive and not a polymesh.
   Polymeshes are polygonal 3D models that can be subdivided and sculpted inside ZBrush.
   Models imported into ZBrush are polymeshes by default, but meshes we create from
   primitives need to be converted with the Make PolyMesh3D button under the Tool menu.
   This converts the ZBrush primitive into a polymesh, which we can now use to sculpt on.
   At this stage, let’s activate sculpting symmetry. This allows you to sculpt one side
   of the lion’s face while the other side automatically mirrors your changes. To turn on
   Symmetry, press the X key on the keyboard to activate X Symmetry. X Symmetry will
   mirror your sculpting actions across the center line of the figure. The Symmetry options
   are located on the Transform menu at the top of the screen. To access the options, select
   Transform → Activate Symmetry. You’ll see a red dot on the other side of your model
   that mirrors your brush strokes. It is generally a good idea to start a sculpture with
   Symmetry turned on. Always turn off Symmetry in the final stages to add another level
   of realism by breaking the perfect balance between the forms or adding little differ-
   ences between the sides.